by Sapphire

Blowing things up is easy. Punching bad guys into walls is easy. Casting spells that hold your enemies in stasis, also easy. As is saving kittens from trees, little old ladies from bulldozers, and the UN from a bomb. These things are all, comparatively, easy. Not that I’m saying just anyone could do them. But they’re pretty straight forward.

The hard part is the judgment calls. Maybe that kitten is actually a mind controlling alien that eats little girls – saving it from that tree may allow it to continue its rampage of terror. Or perhaps that little old lady is a mafia boss, and in saving her you’re allowing the next Valentine’s Day massacre to happen. And maybe the UN building has been taken over by Lemurians and you need them out of there. I’m not saying these things are likely, but what if?

Very often it’s not so clear. Like what happened with Mind Slayer.

After our abbreviated dinner, Mayte Sanchez and Kinetik were able to track her down and get word to me. She was sulking when I got there, arms crossed over her chest.

“She won’t talk to us,” Mayte whispered to me. “Only you, she says.”

I nodded and went in.

“’Bout time you got here, Bimbette.”

“Nice to see you, too,” I said. “You could have talked to Mayte or Kinetik.”

“No,” she said, “I’m talking to you. No one else.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re the bleeding heart of the group,” she said, “of course.”

“Gee, thanks. If you wanted to talk to me, why did you run the other day?” I sat down on the table, letting my legs swing slightly.

“Foxfart. And you. Someone’ll take a picture and next thing, it’s on the front page of some stupid magazine. Medusa doesn’t pay that much attention to TV, but she reads crap magazines about who’s dating who. I don’t want my face in some pic of Foxbrat and you. She can’t know I’m talking to you, understand?”

“I understand.”

And when Mind Slayer began to explain why she wanted to talk to me, I understood even more.

She told me that she was worried about Psimon. While I happen to think he’s a pretty rotten villainous dude, I still get that she loves him. She was worried because she thought Medusa was just using him. I can’t argue that one; it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to learn Medusa was the brains behind Psimon. She’s sneaky like that.

Medusa had a plan to break into the Antiquities Museum and steal a particular item rumored to focus mental powers. It would, Mind Slayer told me, enable Medusa to take over all of Millennium City.

The problem, so far as Mind Slayer was concerned? Medusa didn’t like her at all.

“She thinks Psimon is her pretty little boy toy, but she’s wrong. He’s smarter than that,” Mind Slayer told me. “He’s a lot smarter than that! When she’s not there, he knows I’m the one that’s got his back. He knows it, when she’s not around. Don’t want her controlling him anymore.” Mind Slayer almost snarled that last bit.

“Deal is,” she went on, “I tell you the when, and the what. You show up, you stop ‘em and grab Medusa. Leave me to get Psimon outta there.”

“Why should I make that deal? We want both of them in jail.”

“Well, you’re not gonna get both of them in jail,” she said. “’Cause I’m not telling unless you promise. And you don’t have the time to keep watch on the entire frickin’ museum, so you need what I know.”

“And why would you trust my promise?” I asked her, knowing that I might be blowing the whole deal by pointing out she had no reason to trust me.

She smiled. “You like being a good guy, and good guys keep their promises.”

And so I found myself having to make a judgment call. Whatever I agreed to, with her, the Champions would respect. If I said we wouldn’t take Psimon, we wouldn’t. I would be tying not only my own hands, but those of my teammates. Could I justify doing that? And then, did I trust her? It’s not generally a good idea to trust supervillains. At the same time, she was right. We needed her info. Our resources are stretched pretty thin.

“All right,” I told her, “we’ll do it your way.”

She began to smile.

“But-“ I said, raising my hand to stop her from saying anything, “if Psimon attacks me or any of my friends, we will defend ourselves against him. And if it looks, for even one second, like you don’t have him under control, he’s fair game.”

She just gave me a close-lipped smile. “I knew you’d agree. You superhero types are always so predictable.”

Maybe we are predictable. Maybe keeping my word puts me at a disadvantage, and allows supervillains an edge. But I’d rather keep my word than not. It’s an easy slide to start saying the ends justify the means, and then find yourself on the wrong side of the law. Like Mind Slayer, hurting anyone, and everyone, in her need to protect herself. Even handing over her allies to people like me.